Hugh laughed again, and with such thorough abandonment to his mad humour, that his limbs seemed dislocated, and his whole frame in danger of tumbling to pieces; but Mr Tappertit, so far from receiving this extreme merriment with any irritation, was pleased to regard it with the utmost favour, and even to join in it, so far as one of his gravity and station could, with any regard to that decency and decorum which men in high places are expected to maintain.

Hostess, clap to the doors; watch to-night, pray to-morrow. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you! What, shall we be merry? Shall we have a play extempore?

Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for out of question, you were born in a merry hour. No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star danced, and under that I was born.

Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, August's Abstract. Adam Davie, Life of Alexander (About 1312). In Warton's History of English Poetry, Volume II, p. 10. Quoted by Ben Jonson, Masque of Christmas.